Vermont governor bans state funded travel to Indiana

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin is banning all non-essential state-funded trips to Indiana because of that state’s new religious-freedom law that critics say opens the door to discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Governors in Connecticut, New York and Washington state have imposed similar bans, as have mayors from San Francisco, Seattle, Portland and the District of Columbia.

Shumlin also invited a public-employee union that cancelled a women’s conference in Indianapolis to hold it in Vermont because of what he called the state’s legacy of promoting equal rights.

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He said Vermont was the first state to legislate marriage equality “simply because it was the right thing to do, not because a court mandated it.”

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said Tuesday that he wants legislation on his desk by the end of the week to clarify that the state’s law does not allow discrimination against gays and lesbians.